WEST BERGHOLT

THE ancient parish of West Bergholt (fn. 1) com-
prises a rectangular area (2,296 a. or 929 ha.)
immediately north-west of Colchester. Its
boundary with Colchester Liberty was formed
by the river Colne on the south and St. Botolph's
brook on the south-east. The north-east boundary followed a tributary of St. Botolph's brook.
The north, north-west, and west boundaries
with Great Horkesley and Wormingford followed the Sudbury Road, and that with Ford-
ham followed field boundaries. (fn. 2) Two detached
parts, of 6 a. and 4 a., lay in Fordham. A third,
of 7 a., in Lexden had originally been part of
that parish. It had been granted in the 13th century to the abbot of Waltham who apparently
held it of Bergholt Hall manor by 1509. All three
detached parts were transferred to their surrounding parishes in 1883. (fn. 3) A small area was
transferred from Fordham to West Bergholt in
1889, 5 a. east of St. Botolph's brook was transferred to Colchester in 1934, and 11 a. on the
northern boundary was transferred to Little
Horkesley in 1955. (fn. 4) In 1974 the boundary was
extended south from Newbridge to incorporate
a large tract of land previously in Lexden,
between the Colne, St. Botolph's brook, and the
railway line to London. (fn. 5)

The land rises gently from under 20 m. along
the Colne and St. Botolph's brook to 50 m. on
a broad plateau stretching northwards toward
Great and Little Horkesley. On the west the
land falls to under 20 m. in the valley of the
Pulton or Polton brook, a tributary of the Colne.
Along the river terraces in the south and east of
the parish the subsoil is predominantly silty clay
with overlying deposits of sand, gravel, and
fertile loam. Further north there are stiffer and
colder clays overlain by deposits of flint, chalk,
sand, and occasionally loam. Brickearth is found
in many places. (fn. 6)

In the early Middle Ages much of the parish
was woodland and its name, meaning 'copse by
a hill', may describe the woods of Bergholt
Hall. (fn. 7) The whole of the eastern side of the
parish, including West Bergholt heath, appar-
ently formed part of Cestrewald, probably the
wood belonging to the townsmen of Colchester.
The neighbouring Kingswood still extended
into West Bergholt in 1535. (fn. 8) The heath (267 a.
in 1863) was a large area of rough ground, furze,
and wood used as common grazing. Assarting
on its edges, especially along the banks of the
Colne and St. Botolph's brook, had already
begun by the earlier 13th century, and the
heath was later subject to increasing piecemeal inclosure. Many squatters built cottages
on the south of the heath and the names Bard
field, Barfold, or 'Barfel' used locally from the
16th to 19th centuries, may refer to that area. (fn. 9)

No major or turnpiked roads crossed the
parish, although the Colchester-Sudbury road
across the centre of the parish was known as
the Coach road and was included in an abort-
ive turnpike plan in 1765. (fn. 10) The Colchester-
Nayland road crossed the parish along the
western edge of the heath, its northern section
being called Drake Street in 1414. Polton Lane
mentioned in 1508 probably led to Fordham,
and Crabbes Lane recorded in 1560 to Little
Horkesley. (fn. 11) Many minor roads and tracks, such
as Sprowle Street (1415) running from the
Colchester-Sudbury road, connected dispersed
farms to each other and to the main roads, particularly in the west and north of the parish. (fn. 12)
In 1645 'market people' from West Bergholt
and Fordham travelled on a footpath through
Lexden to Colchester. (fn. 13) Many trackways on
the heath were retained upon its inclosure in
1865, the most important becoming Chapel
Road. (fn. 14)

Figure 5:

West Bergholt c. 1880

The Colchester road crosses St. Botolph's
brook at Botolph's bridge, a corruption of
Godulf's bridge first recorded in the 13th century. (fn. 15) Newbridge, further west where Lexden
Road crosses the Colne, was first recorded in
1200. (fn. 16) The lords of the manors of Bergholt
Hall, Lexden, and Abbotts in Stanway were
responsible for maintaining the bridge which
was constructed in three sections to facilitate
repairs. (fn. 17) In 1665-6 it was in poor repair and
impassable. (fn. 18) In 1866 the bridge carried most
traffic, the ford beside it often being impassable
except by the largest carts and wagons. (fn. 19) It was
replaced with an enlarged bridge in 1983. (fn. 20)
Another bridge called Joyers bridge, also con-
structed in three sections, crossed the Pulton
brook on Kings Lane. Between 1490 and 1511
repairs were the responsibility of the lord of
Cooks Hall, the rector, and the chaplain of the
parish chantry. In 1601 the lord of Cooks Hall
ordered two of his tenants and the rector to
repair it. (fn. 21)

Prehistoric, Iron-Age, and Roman material
from West Bergholt Hall, St. Mary's church,
and nearby sites suggest that the area may have
been continuously settled. (fn. 22) Prehistoric flints, a
middle Bronze-Age cemetery, and Iron-Age
pottery from Chitts Hill, south of the Colne,
also imply early settlement in that area. (fn. 23)
Scattered finds in the parish include several
Palaeolithic axes from the heath, Iron-Age and
Roman pottery and coins. (fn. 24) There are large areas
of undated cropmarks to the south of Hill House
farm, west of Armoury farm, and east of Bourne
Road. (fn. 25)

West Bergholt was one of the least populous
parishes in Lexden Hundred in the Middle
Ages. The combined total of free tenants, unfree
tenants, and slaves was 27 in 1066 and probably
32 in 1086. (fn. 26) In 1377 only 105 inhabitants paid
the poll tax. (fn. 27) The population may have grown
rapidly between 1559 and 1601 when baptisms
were nearly double the burials, although many
people probably migrated to Colchester. (fn. 28) There
were 73 houses in 1671, including 38 exempt
from hearth tax. (fn. 29) Growth may have slackened
in the 18th century as there was only a small
surplus of baptisms over burials from 1734 to
1771. There were 60-70 families in the parish
in 1723 and 50 houses in 1766. (fn. 30) The rate of
increase was faster than that of neighbouring
parishes in the 19th century; the near doubling
of the population from 552 in 1801 to its peak
of 1,067 in 1881 was partly a reflection of
employment opportunities at Daniell's brewery
on Colchester Road. Thereafter growth faltered
but the parish had the seventh highest popu-
lation in the hundred by 1901. (fn. 31) Population
increased only gradually in the earlier 20th century, but it nearly tripled, from 1,272 to 3,027,
between 1951 and 1991. (fn. 32)

The ancient settlement pattern was a combination of dispersed farms, including the manorial centres of Bergholt Hall and Cooks Hall,
and linear settlement along the main roads. On
the clayland north and north-west of Bergholt
Hall and the heath, a number of 17th-century
or earlier houses occupy sites of copyholds or
freeholds of Bergholt Hall manor. (fn. 33) Little
Priors, a 17th-century timber-framed and jettied
house, occupies the site of the house for an estate
granted by Ralph of Bergholt to Little Leighs
priory in 1248. (fn. 34) Pond Farm, a 17th-century
timber-framed house, stands on a possibly
moated site perhaps associated with Henry atte
Ponde (1341). (fn. 35) Scarletts probably occupies the
site of Thomas Scarlett's seven- or eight-hearth
house recorded in 1662 and 1671. The 17th-
century house was timber-framed and in three
structural parts: a three-roomed south range
which may have been the earlier, a square north
block containing one principal room on each
floor, and a small stair turret in the angle
between them on the east side. In the mid 18th
century the west front and the south end were
encased in brick, and in the 19th century the
casing was extended to the north end and a dairy
and a lean-to were added to the east of the
south range. (fn. 36) King's Farm has a hall and cross-
wing plan and is probably of 16th-century
origin. The upper floors in both parts appear
to be insertions but all the roofs have been
renewed. Highfields Farm is a 17th-century
timber-framed house with mansard roof, and
Rookery Farm a 17th-century timber-framed
house with a brick wing. (fn. 37)

More early houses survive on the sites of cus-
tomary and freehold tenancies of Bergholt Hall
and Cooks Hall manors around the edges of the
heath. (fn. 38) High Trees Farm is a substantial early
15th-century house of hall and cross-wing plan
which retains many original features including
crown-post roofs, four-centred headed door-
ways in the screens passage, and jettied ends to
the cross wings. Early in the 17th century a stack
and upper floor were put into the hall range and
a stack was added or rebuilt at the south, parlour
end. There is a timber-framed kitchen wing,
perhaps of the 17th century, behind the service
end. (fn. 39) Nos. 10 and 12 Lexden Road, formerly a
single house, and No. 20, Bures House, are both
17th-century timber-framed houses. Additions
at 20 Lexden Road include a late 18th-century
dentilled cornice. The small 18th-century brick
house which survives at the north-east corner of
Firmins has an older, timber-framed kitchen
wing, and was enlarged in the 19th century and
the earlier 20th.

Bourne Farm, a 17th-century timber-framed
house with a 16th-century barn, probably occupies the site of Maud atte Bourne's house in
1327. (fn. 40) Whitehouse Farm is a heavily restored,
probably 17th-century, hall house with jetty and
cross wing. Horsepits Farm, formerly Bulbeks,
may mark the site of the house occupied by
Thomas Bulbek in 1327. (fn. 41) The surviving high
quality 16th-century or earlier timber-framed
house with east and west cross wings, has a con-
tinuous jetty and a first-floor hall. The house
was built or remodelled by its 16th-century free-
hold tenants, the clothiers Thomas (fl. 1542-60)
and William Dibney (d. 1595). (fn. 42) The date Nov.
10 1628 and the initials D.T.S. discovered in
the east gable in 1944 were probably for Thomas
Dibney (fl. 1631) and his wife. (fn. 43)

The large nucleated village of West Bergholt
developed between the 17th and 20th centuries
on land formerly the heath. Some large agricul-
tural inclosures were made along the Lexden
road in the 17th century or earlier, including
Ardens or Dairy Farm, later Donard Lodge, but
most of the early intakes were concentrated
south of Chapel Road. Mount Pleasant on
Chapel Road and Spring Cottage on Spring
Lane are typical houses for the smallholdings
established by 1843, while Pippin Cottage on
Chapel Lane is perhaps representative of the
many cottages, mostly weatherboarded with
2-4 rooms. The number of small cottages in
that area of the heath increased greatly in the
period 1841-81 when population growth was
rapid. Other, smaller, 19th-century settlements
included a group of cottages on the south side
of Colchester Road, and the semi-circular group
of cottages, shops, and workshops called The
Crescent near the White Hart which were occu-
pied by labourers and craftsmen. (fn. 44)

Chapel Road, later the heart of the village,
was not developed until the late 19th century,
although Rocklands is of c. 1850. The late Vic-
torian and Edwardian houses at its north end,
including Ormonde House (1880), Ebenezer
Villas (1884), Warwick Villas (1889), Ivanhoe,
and Heathland (1908), and the detached houses
of similar date on the south side of New Church
Road, reflect an influx of professional people
from Colchester into the parish. (fn. 45) Cottages were
built on the Colchester road in the late 19th
century for workers at Daniell's brewery and
others were purchased; about 1900 the brewery
had c. 50 houses in the village. (fn. 46)

Some dilapidated cottages were demolished in
the 1950s and council housing built. The village
remained essentially rural up to that time. The
numerous infilling housing developments that
followed in the period 1961-81 gave the village
its present, predominantly suburban, appear-
ance. Among the developments built by Lexden
and Winstree Rural District Council were
Bercolta flats in Mumford Road. Private hous-
ing included Firmins Court and Sackville Way
built in the mid 1970s and the executive-type
housing in Garthwood Close built in the early
1990s. Daniell's brewery buildings and grounds
were converted and redeveloped in 1989 as 200
houses, flats, and maisonettes. The pace of de-
velopment slowed in the 1990s, although there
was a recognized need for more low-cost housing
in 1995. (fn. 47)

Frequent amercements for unlicensed brewing, breaking the assize of ale, and permitting
the playing of illegal games such as tennis, suggest that several alehouses existed in the later
15th and earlier 16th centuries. (fn. 48) Alehouses were
licensed in 1576, 1580, and 1608, although an
unlicensed one owned by a collar-maker was
suppressed in 1618. (fn. 49) There were three unlicensed alehouses or beerhouses in 1644. (fn. 50)
The White Hart, so called from 1716, is an
18th-century timber-framed building which
served as a coaching inn and droving station
between Colchester and Sudbury. (fn. 51) In 1848
there were six beerhouses; in 1995 the Treble
Tile and Queen's Head were the successors of
two of them. (fn. 52)

A public well at the top of Newbridge Hill
was closed in 1896 because its water was unfit for
drinking. In 1905 houses were chiefly supplied
from shallow wells, although there were three
springs which fed public ponds at the Queen's
Head, on Lexden Road, and near the White
Hart, and there was a deep well at the brewery. (fn. 53)
Mains water was supplied from the 1930s, and
a sewage and waste water disposal works was constructed in the period 1957-60, under a shared
arrangement with the brewery. (fn. 54) Colchester
Corporation supplied electricity from 1929-30,
although some large houses already had private
generators for lighting. (fn. 55) Gas may have been first
supplied by the Colchester Gas, Light and Coke
Co. after their expansion in 1916, but a full gas
supply was not provided until the early 1980s. (fn. 56)
Bus services were started from Firmins on the
Lexden Road by J. Darvill in 1902. (fn. 57) By 1932
two regular bus services linked Colchester and
West Bergholt, and by 1946 there were three
services, one local and two through services. (fn. 58)
In 1995 bus services connected the parish with
Colchester seven days a week and with Sudbury
six days a week. (fn. 59)

A friendly society met at the White Hart in
1838. (fn. 60) Epidemics of measles, diphtheria, and
scarlet fever c. 1900 stimulated interest in medi-
cal care, and the Horkesley and West Bergholt
District Nurse Subscribers' Fund was estab-
lished in 1907. (fn. 61) The West Bergholt branch of
the National Agricultural Labourers' Union,
founded in 1874, survived until 1894. (fn. 62) The
West Bergholt Conservative club was formed in
1886; J. H. Round, historian and lord of the
manor, was chairman. (fn. 63) Annual ploughing
matches were well-attended in the 1890s,
and the West Bergholt Cottagers' committee
(1898-1931) and the Allotment and Gardeners'
association (1943 onwards) held annual shows. (fn. 64)

The former Primitive Methodist chapel (later
the British school) was used as a village hall from
1902 to 1949. The Working Men's Social club
erected in 1921 a clubhouse on Lexden Road
which became the Scout hut in 1938. The Orpen
Memorial Hall, built in 1938 in memory of
O. G. Orpen (d. 1917), a director at Daniell's
brewery, contains a hall, ancillary rooms, and a
kitchen. It was requisitioned by the army in the
Second World War, but since then has replaced
both the village hall and the Working Men's
clubhouse as a meeting place for the numerous
village clubs and societies. T. D. Daniell presented the adjacent 4-a. sports field to the parish
in 1939. (fn. 65) A tennis club met next to the Orpen
Hall in the 1930s was restarted in 1945. (fn. 66) The
parish cricket club was founded in the early 19th
century; in 1843 the cricket field lay immediately
west of Daniell's brewery. (fn. 67) Sports clubs in 1995
provided for football, cricket, indoor bowls, and
darts. (fn. 68) A naturist club, the Spring Wood Sun
club, established in the 1950s in woods near the
Old Rectory had over 100 members by 1973. (fn. 69)

In 1914 troops from the Suffolk regiment
were billeted in the village. (fn. 70) Hill House on
Lexden Road and barns and outbuildings near
Cooks Hall suffered bomb damage in the Second
World War. (fn. 71) A pillbox survived near the river
west of Newbridge in 1995.

In 1989 the Bergholt Hall estate had 62 a. of
woodland stocked with wild pheasants, woodcock, and pigeons. (fn. 72) In 1993 its owner sold
Hillhouse wood to the Woodland Trust as a
nature reserve. (fn. 73) In 1995 the parish contained
seven sites important for nature conservation
and part of the Colne Valley Countryside
Conservation area, and many of its trees were
subject to preservation orders. (fn. 74)

Footnotes

1. This article was completed in 1995. The assistance of
Mr. D. Smith and the West Bergholt Local Hist. Group is
gratefully acknowledged. Architectural descriptions were
compiled or revised by A. P. Baggs.